Depth vs. Brevity: A Comparative Analysis of The Washington Post and Axios in Reporting the JFK Assassination Files

In a time of digitalised media era , news is produced, organised, and consumed in quite different ways on different platforms. This analysis contrasts Axios, a digital-native platform built for speed and brevity, with The Washington Post, a legacy media source anchored in investigative depth. This paper investigates how different editorial models influence news accuracy, structure, visual narrative, interaction, and monetizing techniques using the shared coverage of the 2025 release of JFK assassination files as a case study.

Biographical Inventory

The legacy American newspaper The Washington Post was founded in 1877 with absolute monarchs in political reporting and investigative journalism.

Introduced by former owner Eugene Meyer in 1935, the Seven Principles for the Conduct of a Newspaper stresses truth, justice, and public service over private or political objectives , and still affect the editorial philosophy for news world.

Jeff Bezos, the man behind Amazon, has been privately owning The Washington Post since 2013. Though the century-old newspaper is highly regarded for its editorial independence and journalistic integrity, its political neutrality has come under examination. This is somewhat related to Bezos’s apparent Democratic Party connection and the newspaper’s regular voicing of leftist points of view—for example, its critical posture towards the Republican Party and the Trump government . Despite these tensions , The Washington Post is still a pioneer in the continuous digital change of  world news.

Based in Virginia, Axios is an American digital-born news website unlike those predecessor, founded by former Politico reporters including Jim VandeHei in 2016. Inspired from the Greek word ἄξιoς, which means “worthy,” Axios  is noted for its clear and direct reporting,  articles are  readily consumed by readers since they highlight important facts using bullet points. Apart from news stories, Axios generates daily and weekly newsletters covering particular sectors as well as lives.

Aimed at broadening its influence and resources in the digital news scene, Axios was acquired in September 2022 by Cox Enterprises.
With an eye towards presenting news and insights across politics, technology, business, and media, Axios aims to give users the information they need in an orderly and straightforward tone.

User Analysis and Target Markets

The Washington Post commands a substantial global reach, with over 88 million monthly readers, including 66 million in the U.S. and 22 million internationally. The platform’s core audience is U.S.-centred, with a strong concentration in the Washington D.C. area, where 1 in 3 civic leaders engages regularly with its content.

Demographically, its readers are highly educated and affluent:

• 71% possess at least a bachelor’s degree
• Median household income: $109,000+
• Average session duration: 4+ minutes, suggesting strong return-based engagement and a preference for in-depth, analytical content

  

The Washington Post’s subscription model enables access to premium content tailored for professionals in government, academia, and media. However, this also introduces a higher barrier to entry for casual or first-time readers.

Axios, by contrast, serves a younger, mobile-first, and time-pressed readership. Its typical audience includes:

• urban professionals aged 25–44,
• working in tech, business, media, or public policy

The platform distributes over 20 targeted newsletters—such as Axios AM and Axios PM—widely read among political insiders and executives.

Axios prove the concept of  clarity, speed, and brevity in content delivery, making it highly compatible with mobile reading habits. Its model reflects the needs of readers seeking fast, efficient access to essential information without the cognitive burden of longform journalism

Accuracy and Credibility

The piece on the JFK files in the Washington Post, “CIA secrets and exposed agents: See unredacted details from the JFK files,” epitomizes conventional investigative reporting. It cites:

• Official CIA records,
•  National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• Straight quotes from political leaders and historical analysts.

Important instances include a letter from Arthur Schlesinger Jr. denouncing CIA-State Department authority conflicts.

Reproduction of once-redacted pages now exposing agent names and activities Although the paper lacks numerous clickable links, the inclusion of expert opinion and primary source scans improves credibility. Journalistic process and institutional authority help to build trust. This concept with the findings of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report (2023), which indicates that legacy media organisations maintain public trust due to their historical reputation and perceived institutional accountability.

Under the heading “Trump releases JFK assassination files,” Axios, in a neat, bullet-point style, notes the same development. The paper references:

• Official NARA press releases.

• Contextual references to openness policies from the Trump period

Axios contains connections to source materials and linked Axios pieces, therefore complementing Harmer and Southern’s (2020) remark that direct citation on digital-native platforms promotes openness. Axios excels at compiling confirmed material for rapid consumption even though it does not undertake original research. It offers what Koivunen-Niemi & Masoodian (2019) would define as “surface verifiability,” in which links produce a transparent, if not profoundly analytical, reading experience.

Scannability

The Washington Post continues to be a typical long-form piece in this one. It is set in a neutral tone, starting with a short, definitive hook, moves into document analysis including images and file decoding, and finishes with more general ramifications. Pull quotes and subheads help to break up lengthy material, but the article is obviously meant for more thorough reading. This approach reflects the “linear narrative construction” typical in legacy formats, where the emphasis lies on context-rich storytelling (Karlsson & Clerwall, 2019).

This arrangement facilitates slower, more deliberate media consumption and helps readers seeking complexity. The Reuters Institute’s 2023 report similarly observes that in-depth reporting retains value among audiences who prioritise accuracy and contextual depth.

Axios uses its usual “Smart Brevity,” which good at transmitting maximum information with few words. Usually presented in bullet-point style like the one below in this article, most of its pieces are under 300 words and have a clear structure with separate paragraphs like below：

 Every section runs two to four bullet points, each no more than two sentences. This fits the “chunking” technique Koivunen-Niemi & Masoodian (2019), which improves mobile users’ retention and understanding. It lets the reader scan for just the bits they are interested in and is perfect for skim reading. Axios‘s simple, no-frills presentation obviously has an advantage in fast-paced, scan-heavy reading contexts, even if it can be difficult to directly compare two media outlets with such different artistic identities. Though occasionally shallow, its understated approach fits the information needs and attention patterns of mobile-first consumers.

Visual Narrative

The Washington Post publishes archival pictures of President Kennedy and CIA agents, high-resolution scans of deleted documents, and contrast between censored and underacted words. JavaScript-driven interactions that let users zoom in and examine files on their own form visibly hierarchies in the design. Though heavily ingrained in the narrative logic, the visual style stays black and white. This reflects the concept of ‘multimodal literacy,’ where visual elements are integral to meaning making in digital journalism, as discussed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2001) in their work on multimodal discourse.

Restricted by its “Smart Brevity,” Axios lacks more sophisticated visual elements. While the rest of the JFK post is just plain text, the one static image—President Trump or a document extract—positioned at the top of the page is rather clear. Though important terms are sometimes emphasised in bold, Axios’s focus on quick loading rates and low reader distraction is reflected in this understated graphic approach. It guarantees constant performance across all devices and keeps attention on the fundamental structure of the content, even if it might lower narrative immersion. According to Otero-González & Vázquez Herrero (2023), such minimalism is a common design decision in mobile-first journalism prioritising “uncluttered access” over interactive immersion.

Technical Delivery and Interaction

The story in The Washington Post is semi-interactive. Although they improve user engagement, timelines, document sliders, and mouse-over definitions also demand more device capabilities and could shorten page load times. Usually keeping editorial control, comments are turned off on politically sensitive works.

Axios is oriented on flexible, mobile-first delivery. Its material is directly linked with its mailing system and designed for almost instantaneous loading. There are not interactive visuals, embedded multimedia, or comment sections. To provide a frictionless user experience, Axios instead depends on hyper-efficiency, a uniform layout, a variety of external linkages and responsive design. Its technology approach gives wide accessibility top importance over immersive storytelling. Especially, Axios shows an anticipated reading time in the navigation bar before opening into a news item. Especially appreciated by time-pressed professionals, this little feature demonstrates a smart, user-centered design philosophy and provides a modest but powerful kind of reader care and time-awareness.

Revenue Model and Advertising

The Washington Post runs under a mixed revenue strategy. Usually expected to join or log in, visitors are only allowed a limited amount of free articles each month before running across a paywall. Readers are urged to subscribe to obtain more unique information, usually using weekly plans akin to a digitalized version of a conventional newspaper.

Stated differently, access to The Washington Post is much limited and difficult without a paid subscription, regularly disrupted by pop-up messages asking registration or payment. Paywall’s approach creates a significant degree of information disparity between paying subscribers and casual or first-time readers. This in some ways captures the institutional pride and high threshold of entrance sometimes connected with legacy media. According to Pickard (2020), such paywalls can exacerbate “news inequality” by limiting quality journalism to those who can afford it.

Moreover, most articles—except from few premium columns or investigative reports—still include banner and inline ads even for paid members. Usually tucked between article sections, these adverts are customised using third-party cookies and surfing data. Although these ads bring in necessary money, their high frequency and invasive style—especially in the form of pop-ups or big banners—tend to disturb the reading experience, especially on mobile devices.

Axios, on the other hand, follows a funding model based mostly on native advertising and sponsored newsletter inserts, thereby imposing almost no hard paywall or reading restrictions. Usually not upsetting the overall content flow, these promotional items are clearly labelled.

Sponsored content provides users with a smooth yet transparent experience and reflects the editorial tone and layout of Axios. While Axios does provide a subscription-based Axios Pro service catered for business leaders, most of news coverage is publicly available without membership. Axios lowers cognitive burden and improves the user’s whole sense of goodwill and comfort while reading by keeping a clear and non-intrusive advertising policy.

Conclusion

The various responses of The Washington Post and Axios to the release of the JFK assassination files let us observe how diverse media logic, audience emphasis, and platform strategy are in current online journalism. As a historical mainstream media outlet, The Washington Post maintains journalistic value as a public service depending on investigative depth, institutional credibility, and a subscription-based paywall to preserve its authority. This approach is quite appropriate for its primary audience—experienced users that value narrative structure and contextual depth.

Axios, which targets younger，runs under the “Smart Brevity,” philosophy as a digital-native platform. On the platform, primary priority is efficiency, scannability, structural clarity, and hyperlink transparency. Its lightweight design lowers user friction, thereby boosting accessibility and daily usability; its native advertising approach is easily adopted, content remains free, and so minimises user friction.

The coexistence of these two platforms reflects a dual logic inside the digital news ecosystem: on one hand, legacy media preserves its function as a democratic “gatekeeper” by deep reporting; on the other, digital platforms hasten information distribution by technological optimisation and user-centered design. This isn’t a zero-sum game. Good journalism in the complex digital public sphere of today must strike a dynamic mix between immersive depth and scattered consumption, between authority and accessibility. Online media needs to handle a basic challenge and potential going forward.

Reference

Primary News Sources 

Saric, I. (2025, March 18). Trump releases JFK assassination files. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/trump-releases-jfk-assassination-files

Somasundaram, P., & Morse, C. E. (2025, March 21). CIA secrets and exposed agents: See unredacted details from the JFK files. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2025/jfk-files-assassination-documents/

About 

Axios. (n.d.). About us. https://www.axios.com/about

The Washington Post. (n.d.). About us. https://www.washingtonpost.com/about-us/

 Media Kit & Advertising Policy

Axios. (n.d.). Advertise with us. https://www.axios.com/advertise

The Washington Post. (n.d.). Advertising & media solutions. https://www.washingtonpost.com/solutions/

The Washington Post. (n.d.). Advertising overview. https://www.washingtonpost.com/advertising/

Brandt, S. (2004). GUNTHER KRESS & THEO VAN LEEUWEN, Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold, 2001. Pp. vii, 142. Hb $72.00, Pb $24.95. Language in Society, 33(01). https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404504221054